No way!!! Fans are biased, imo. Reading them will be either too sugary or too nasty. However, I would hire a very cognizant figure skating fan to read them, and bring to my attention any useful constructive criticisms.

well..

Don't you think skaters get tired of what fans think? At least I'm sure the skaters who have been doing this forever probably lose interest and just do their thing..but as for the younger set, maybe they can get more curious. In fact, I wonder if there is a famous figure skater on this forum, reading everything we write,,hhhhmmmmm...

I've been thinking about this one because I'm a bit of a message-board obsessive so I don't know whether that would ever change, but I don't think I would seek out opinions on what people think of me. I might be interested in the 'What music should so-and-so skate to next season' threads, but with regards technique and skill I would hope my own coaching team would tell me where I was going wrong.

I'm sure I probably would at first during the start of the period where I actually had enough of a competitive record for people to actually BE talking about me, but given the nature of some comments about skaters that I have read on this board, the fascination probably wouldn't last long. No matter how talented and popular you are, there are always going to be a few negative (and oftimes unnecessarily nasty) comments, and who needs to bog themselves down with such negativity??

I suspect many skaters do check the skating forums, or have someone do so on their behalf. Both Jeff Buttle and Joannie Rochette have publicly responded to information posted about them on internet discussion boards. I also heard a tale about them apparently reading FSU at an internet café in France while competing at TEB, but have no idea if this is really true.